November 30, 2010

I got up at 5:15am to have a shower and prepare for the hike Viktor and I was going to do with Weninger. I let Viktor sleep as long as possible and woke him up at 5:45. He was difficult to get up, but at a few minutes after 6 we were ready and sat at the entrance to the lodge waiting for Wwninger. We had told him that we were used to hiking in Norway and we really wanted to see some wildlife, preferably monkeys and colorful birds.

Full of motivation we trotted into the jungle and the unique grid of paths they have made here. Weninger told us that this had all been planned by a biologist working at the research center. The grid has pathways every 100 meters (110 yards) and is 2km (1 1/4 mile) wide in each direction, giving a total of 84 km (52 miles) of cleared paths. As every computer scientist will know the paths will go from the zeroth to the 20th in each direction of such a grid, making 21×2 pathways.

After a couple of hours with no animals in sight we stopped to have breakfast in the jungle. Weninger har brought fruit, bread and hardboiled eggs.

It was interesting to observe Weninger as he took us through the jungle. After several days together with him it was clear to me that the most important thing to be aware of here are the many dangers in form of poisonous creatures and spines. It reminded me of a discussion I had with my good Australian friend Warwick many years ago. Having grown up in Rockhampton and later living in Brisbane he had more or less grown up being able to walk barefoot year round. When he moved to Norway he was not at all familiar with the concept of making sure you do not get too cold. In Norway, when you are doing long hikes or skiing trips in the woods during winter, there is one single thing you have to be most aware of, and that is the danger of freezing. There are so many small pieces of knowledge you use to make sure you don´t goof up and you never even think about them. It was only when I discussed with him I realized some of the basics. Like the knowledge that snow is dry when it is cold. If it is cold enough you don´t care if your jacket is full of it, you just wipe it off whenver you want to. However, you do not get it into your shoes, because it will melt from your body heat and you will get very cold afterwards. Obvious, it you´ve grown up with it.

Warwick, on the other hand, had grown up with the frying sun and had lots of similar knowledge about how to not overheat during the day. We agreed that there is no zone where people learn both. Actually we theorized that there must be a band in Europe, roughly between the 55th and the 40th parallel (from the middle of Scotland/Denmark/Lithuania to the middle of Portugal/Spain/Italy/Greece) where people don´t know squat about any of them. Here live the ignorant middle Europeans who will die quickly both at the North Pole and in the Sahara.

Aaaanyway, in the jungle the sun is not a big problem, the trees take care of that. Freezing is even less of a problem, Weninger spoke about the really cold winter where it could sometimes go all the way down to just under 20 C (68F). Brrrrr. In the jungle it is all about avoiding the bullet ants, and fire ants, and scorpions, and snakes, and spines, and you get the picture. For example you should never grab around a tree for support unless you are really sure it is safe. Easy to say, difficult to get used to.

Several times we were on the tail of monkeys, but every time they eluded us. All we could see were distant moving shadows. On one occasion we could hear toucans chirping, but they too flew away like stripes on the sky far away before we could reach them. For six whole hours we walked along the pathways of the grid without seeing a single monkey or a single colorful bird. The closest we came, and the only bird or primate we saw, was this chestnut bellied something:

We did, however see some insects and a few dragonhead lizards:

This moth has a wingspan of about 15 cm (6 inches):

Weninger found a type of nut he told us was relatively rare. It is very difficult to find the tree, but sometimes you will find a nut on the ground far from it. He split it open with his machete and we ate it. It had a very good nutty taste.

Viktor found some beautiful flowers on the ground which had fallen off a tree.

Suddenly Weninger stopped and took a few steps back. He had found a type of palm leaf the could be used for making stuff. In about 10 minutes he transformed 2 branches into a basket. Then he reinforced the basket with some very large leaves from a different plant. Finally he stripped some bark off a tape tree and, presto, he had made a jungle backpack for Viktor. It can hold roughly 5 kilos and will last for about two days before the leaves dry up and fall to pieces. He told us that typically you would make one when you needed to transport what you had caught/found, like a large fish. We put our two one liter (one quart) drinking bottles into it and Viktor happily carried them for the rest of the day. Weninger went on to make a jungle crown for Viktor. What an experience to have a guide that has grown up in the jungle!

Here is the starting point:

The leaves are woven together:

The branches are bent 90 degrees two times in the middle, to form the bottom of the backpack:

Then the sides are made by braiding the ends of the leaves:

Finally the top leaves are also woven into the rest of the structure on top of already woven leaves to fasten the leaves and the form the top edge:

The inside was then padded with some very large leaves. Intermediate result, a basket:

Then bark from the tape tree was used to make straps:

Finished backpack:

Jungle prince:

This is the egg of the colorful red and black beetle you saw above:

We saw several small frogs:

We found a plant which does not have flowers, but which forms seeds under the leaves, presumably making clones of the same plant, I suppose?

Weninger was visibly disappointed that he had not been able to show us any wildlife and apologized at the end of the hike. His only explanation was that there might be predatrors in the area, possibly eagle. He said that normally the animals are curious and will come when he calls them, but that something must have scared them today.

During the hike, and also on our previous hikes with him, he has made a large number of different calls, He knows how to make sounds to attract all kinds of birds and primates, and even caimans (crocodiles). Sometimes we could witness him talking to birds. He would make a call and a bird would answer with the exact same sounds, then they would repeat. Impressive, indeed!

Viktor endured the entire 6 hour hike without a complaint of any kind or ever slowing down!

Back at the lodge the others had had a relaxing day, mostly reading. They had done one small excursion of about half an hour and had seen Pygmy Marmoset monkeys! Hélène also took a picture of this cool lizard:

After lunch we had planned to take the boat down the river and hiked for 5 minutes to a small lake where Weninger said we could catch Peacock Bass. He said they took lures. Cool!

Just before we were to leave some deity had finished its bath and decided to empty the bathtub contents on mother earth. What a  downpour! It only lasted about half an hour to 45 minutes.

Except for a night of rain this was the first rain we had after over a week in the RAINforest in rainy season. I am starting to wonder if Hélène has sold her soul to one of the weather gods in return for good weather during our entire voyage.

After the rain calmed down and eventually stopped we could leave for our planned expedition. On arrival I could see that the lake was covered with pollen and that there were many fallen trees in it.

I couldn´t see below the surface at all because of the pollen. This was going to be a challenge, with high risk of loosing lures. In addition the jungle around the lake was very dense and difficult to navigate. After half an hour I had lost two lures and seriously dirtied my only pair of clean pants. I decided to give up on the lure fishing and went back to the others who were using bait. Weninger was nowhere to be seen.

Bait was much more effective, but only the small fish wanted to bite today. We all caugth numbers of small catfish and miniscule red-bellid piranha.

After half an hour Weninger showed up with a gigantic Peacock Bass on his spear!

He had found a spot where he was sure a bass would pass. Then he had been standing completely still for about half an hour with with his spear ready. Once he saw the fish it was so far away he had to throw the spear, but he hit it. The fish had swum to the middle of the lake with the spear in its back. Weninger had swum out to get it. What a guy!

He wanted to know why I had stopped using lures. I told him that even when fishing just under the surface I had lost two lures. He responded: “But you have to know where you are casting.” Exactly! How he managed to see the bass under the pollen layer is a mystery to me, but he obviously has more trained eyes for this sort of stuff than I do.

In the evening we went night canoing. Viktor stayed behind to sleep. He was exhausted after the six hour hike, the longest in his entire life.

Unfortunately there was not much wildlife out. We had hoped to see some snakes and other stuff. We did see a pair of possums high up a tree for a few seconds, though. It was still an experience to slowly drift along a river in the Amazon in a canoe in pitch darkness, only interrupted by searching flashlights.

Eirik

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